Grant Garmezy grew up on a working farm outside of Nashville, Tennessee. As long as he can remember, he's been fascinated with the arts and working with his hands to create things. His artistic career began when he was very young, taking drawing classes with a local illustrator. He became serious while in his teens, and spent multiple summers at intensive arts programs for high school students. His passion to pursue a career in the arts led Grant to Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Richmond. He originally intended to focus on jewelry and small-scale metals, but once he wandered into the glass studio, he discovered a love for the molten material.

Grant has never been attracted to making functional glass items; instead he has always been drawn to its sculptural qualities. Unlike other materials, glass cannot be sculpted with your hands - artists must use special tools, timing, and gravity to manipulation the two thousand degree material, which is constantly moving while hot. 

Grant is drawn to depicting animal imagery and natural forms when sculpting. When he first started, he found passion in the challenge to capture the physical features of animals, but he now strives to capture expression and movement in the work in order to elevate the work from a sculpture to a story.

Timeline

A glass studio is an amazing space - a place where a team of people come together to create one a kind pieces at 2,300 degrees. In all glass studios, or "hotshops" you will find the same three basic pieces of equipment that allow glass to be melted and worked: a furnace for melting the glass, a reheating chamber to keep the piece at a moveable temperature, and an annealer for allowing the piece to cool very slowly to room temperature.  

What Grant does in the hotshop is called hot sculpting, or "off-hand" sculpting. This means that he sculpts the glass free hand while it is heated to about 2,000 degrees. He uses an extremely hot torch and a variety of hand tools to manipulate the glass. He does not use molds. For that reason, each and every piece is truly unique. Grant works with at least one assistant, but most of the work requires the help of an entire team of skilled artists. For an in-depth look into the process, visit the videos page.

In the art of glassblowing you are only as good as your team. Grant works with truly gifted artists and friends to create the work. Each member of the team contributes to each piece and the work could not be created without them. Learn more about each artist: